Archives for August 2013

Kirksville city leaders are moving forward with implementing the recently-passed human rights ordinance that makes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity illegal. City Manager Mari Macomber will serve as the compliance officer and is charged with initially hearing allegations of illegal discrimination, attempting to resolve those allegations and potentially forwarding the case to the city prosecutor for legal action.

.THE WARMEST TEMPERATURES OF SUMMER WILL REACH THE AREA AS WE FINISH THE MONTH OF AUGUST. HIGH TEMPERATURES ON FRIDAY WILL CLIMB INTO THE UPPER 90S IN MANY AREAS AND MAY EVEN TOP 100 DEGREES IN ISOLATED LOCATIONS.

HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL CLIMB BETWEEN 100 AND 104 DEGREES BY THE MIDDLE AFTERNOON HOURS OF FRIDAY. SATURDAY MAY AGAIN BE A VERY WARM DAY…ESPECIALLY IN AREAS ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE MISSOURI RIVER.

COOLER TEMPERATURES WILL BEGIN TO ARRIVE ON SUNDAY. .

HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON TO 7 PM CDT FRIDAY…

THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND INCREASED HUMIDITY WILL LEAD TO AN INCREASED RISK OF HEAT RELATED STRESS AND ILLNESS. THE YOUNG AND ELDERLY…THOSE WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING…AND THOSE PARTICIPATING IN OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE EXTENDED HOLIDAY WEEKEND WILL BE THE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TO THE EFFECTS OF THE HEAT.

Farmland Foods is asking a federal judge to approve a settlement for a class action lawsuit that alleged the company failed to pay workers for time spent putting on and taking off protective equipment before and after their shifts. A federal judge ruled in May that workers at a Farmland Foods pork-processing plant in Milan, Mo., should be paid for time spent changing into and out of their uniforms. Farmland Foods has proposed a $5.8 million settlement with the members of the class.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has announced the results of a recent sobriety checkpoint conducted in Marion county. Last Saturday night, troopers and Marion County Sheriff’s Department conducted a sobriety checkpoint on U.S. Highway 24 in West Quincy. During the checkpoint officers checked 202 vehicles, made 12 arrests, and issued five citations.

U.S. Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill sent a letter to President Barack Obama yesterday urging him to approve a disaster designation for 22 Missouri counties that were affected by recent flooding and flash flooding earlier this month. The letter follows a formal request from Governor Jay Nixon earlier this week.

Individual assistance means that eligible individuals and households can seek federal assistance for uninsured losses from severe weather and flooding; public assistance allows local governments to seek assistance for response and recovery expenses associated with the severe weather and flooding.

Authorities don’t know yet who died in a firey crash yesterday in Scotland County. There was only one person in the car, which was found engulfed in flame after it hit a bridge abutment on Scotland County Route D, nine miles southwest of Memphis. The fire burned the car and the person beyond an ability to immediately identify, and part of the task of an autopsy on the driver, will be to find out who it is.

An attempt to pass another car on a curve cost a Kirksville man his life, and let to injury of two others. Troopers say Leonard Sims was westbound on Highway 6 near Taylor, in Marion County, when he tried to pass a second vehicle in a curve. He hit an eastbound Buick Terazza driven by Allen Massner of Maywood head-on. He was ejected and died at the scene. Massner and his wife Rosemary each suffered minor injuries. Debris from the collision flew into a third vehicle, but the driver, Richard Wilson of Baring, was not hurt.

A new and unwanted guest is making itself at home in northeast Missouri gardens, potentially damaging crops of blackberries, raspberries, tomatoes and more. Extension Service officials say the Spotted Wing Drosophila was recently confirmed as the latest invasive insect species to reach Adair County. Horticulture Specialist Jennifer Schutter says while the pest had been identified in southern Missouri earlier this summer, Adair County had previously been spared. SWD is a small vinegar or “fruit” fly about 2-3 millimeters in length. The males have one black dot on each wing while females lack the dot and have a serrated ovipositor at the tip of their abdomens. Unlike other fruit flies that lay eggs in damaged fruit, the SWD is able to puncture the skin of healthy berries.

Kirksville High School recently received the ACT Profile Report for the graduating class of 2013. This report provides an extensive analysis of ACT test performance data of KHS students, including a comparison to those of other students in the state. KHS graduates of the class of 2013, earned an average composite score of 23.9. Those scores marked the greatest gap differential, 2.3 points, from other Missouri graduates, for the five years of data provided in the report. Significant improvement was also demonstrated within the KHS population as scores in all categories were significantly higher in 2013 than in 2012. More than two-thirds of the 2013 graduating class took the ACT test.

Aug. 26, 2013 at 4:14 am

By KIRX News

This summer, Edward Snowden, a former government employee, leaked information about U.S. intelligence activities including widespread, warrantless surveillance of domestic and foreign telephone and Internet communications. A University of Missouri law expert says Snowden’s charges show how governments are using terrorism powers too broadly by potentially misapplying laws. The MU expert believes this could have a significant chilling effect on free speech.

Christina Wells, the Enoch N. Crowder Professor of Law in the University of Missouri School of Law and a First Amendment expert, recently published an article in Jurist discussing the Snowden affair and its relation to First Amendment rights. She argues that sections of the Espionage Act are too broadly written and allow the government to avoid charges of treason, which come with many obstacles, while still receiving similar effects in the public sphere.

Wells is concerned that if the federal government abuses laws meant to stop terrorists and spies, it could have damaging effects on First Amendment rights.